ng, in spite of disillusion and self-mockery, that Robert
caught him, had in fact been slowly gaining possession of him all these
months.

'Well,' said Flaxman one day, 'suppose I grant you that Christianity of
the old sort shows strong signs of exhaustion, even in England, and
in spite of the Church expansion we hear so much about; and suppose I
believe with you that things will go badly without religion: what then?
Who can have a religion for the asking?'

'But who can have it without? _Seek_, that you may find. Experiment; try
new combinations. If a thing is going that humanity can't do without,
and you and I believe it, what duty is more urgent for us than the
effort to replace it?'

Flaxman shrugged his shoulders.

'What will you gain? A new sect?'

'Possibly. But what we _stand_ to gain is a new social bond,' was the
flashing answer-'a new compelling force in man and in society. Can you
deny that the world wants it? What are you economists and sociologists
of the new type always pining for? Why, for that diminution of the
self in man which is to enable the individual to see the _world's_
ends clearly, and to care not only for his own but for his neighbor's
interest, which is to make the rich devote themselves to the poor, and
the poor bear with the rich. If man only _would_, he _could_, you say,
solve all the problems which oppress him. It is man's will which is
eternally defective, eternally inadequate. Well, the great religions of
the world are the stimulants by which the power at the root of things
has worked upon this sluggish instrument of human destiny. Without
religion you cannot make the will equal to its tasks. Our present
religion fails us; we must, we will have another!'

He rose, and began to pace along the sands, now gently glowing in the
warm September evening, Flaxman beside him.

_A new religion!_ Of all words, the most tremendous? Flaxman pitifully
weighed against it the fraction of force fretting and surging in the
thin elastic frame beside him. He knew well, however--few better--that
the outburst was not a mere dream and emptiness. There was experience
behind it--a burning, driving experience of actual fact.

Presently Robert said, with a change of tone, 'I must have that whole
block of warehouses, Flaxman.'

'Must You? said Flaxman, relieved by the drop from speculation to the
practical. 'Why?'

'Look here!' And sitting down again on a sandhill overgrown with wild
grasses and mats